Tuesday, January 09, 2007

Each One, Teach One, Part One

Over the past two months I've been doing my bit to Increase the Tribe by teaching a good friend to knit. He is not, to be strictly accurate, my First Pupil. That title belongs to my sister, Susan.

However, Susan had only one lesson, approximately one hour long. After that I sent her back to Maine with a book, yarn, needles and an encouraging word. We're a family of auto-didacts, and I knew she'd pick up the rest on her own with little or no difficulty. She did not disappoint.

My present student is a medical professional and the owner of his own consulting firm, for which he works long and arduous hours. His life is, as you might guess, something of a pressure cooker. His partner suggested that he learn to knit in order to:

Pass the time spent waiting in airports when flying to and from various clients;

Keep his brain and fingers nimble; and

Calm the hell down, already, before you drive me crazy.

The student–let's call him Willibald, just to piss him off–began as an absolute newbie. Our first order of business was to go yarn shopping. No, I lie. Our first order of business was to choose a project. The conversation went something like this:

Willibald: So, what should I make first?

Me: Well, I think for your first project we can start you out with either a scarf or a hat. Which sounds more exciting to you?

Willibald: I want to make a sweater.

Me: Hmm. Okay. See, a sweater is a big commitment and fairly complex. You might want to make that your second project. Or your third. A hat will have a lot of the same techniques in it, but it'll be smaller and bit easier to handle.

Willibald: I want to make a sweater.

Me: I understand that. I just don't want you to get discouraged, and for most folks a sweater takes a while to finish. You won't see results for probably a month or two, at least. A hat would be a good project, though, and would teach you just about everything you need to know to make a sweater. How about a hat?

Willibald: It could be a sweater vest.Me: Why did you ask me what you should make first when you've already decided what you're making first?

We were greeted as always with great cordiality by the owners. We began with a brief orientation in yarn weights and basic fibers. The shop is arranged by color, so we started out in the Red Section nearest the door and proceeded eastward.

Me: How about this? This would look nice on you.

Willibald: It's too loud.

Me: How about this? This would look nice on you.

Willibald: It's too loud.

Me: How about this? This would look nice on you.

Willibald: It's too loud.Me: It's beige.

Willibald: It's a very ostenatious beige.

Never try to have the last word with a doctor.

On the other hand, Willibald went into cardiac arrest when confronted with the price of decent yarn and immediately lowered his primary target to making a scarf in two colors. After about three hours of browsing, he made his first personal fiber purchase: four skeins of Berroco Ultra Alpaca.

67 comments:

Did I meet this person? LOL. "ostenatious beige" is a fabulous comment. I had a similar experience back in the 80's...took a friend to the yarn store and couldn't talk her out of knitting a sweater, in black, had to double the yarn because they didn't have black in the right gauge...and on and on and on. Cut to a scene 10 years later, the sweater was finally finished. Why don't students listen?

Hey, some of us DO know what we are doing!! My first project was a striped crew necked pullover, in the round. (OK it was creepy acrylic...) But I finished in a month and moved on to a shawl collared pullover for my then boyfriend.....He's my husband now, sweater curse be damned, and I never looked back. This was in 1982...I knit my first scarf in 2004.

Do you think it is relevant that I was working in a hospital doing medical research?

I agree with you on keeping it simple, but my first project was a sweater. The instructor felt that all skills we would require going forward would be learned during the process. I finished! And I learned a lot. But it was my last adult sweater--they are too daunting for me.

franklin, I have to de-lurk here to say that when my mother learned to knit as a college student in the 60s, she started with not only a sweater, but a multi-colored ski sweater. I think the instructor of her class figured if you're going to learn to knit, you might as well launch right in and knit something fun. I'm pretty sure she finished it, and she's made lots of wonderful things since (and taught me how to knit when I was a kid...)

It sounds like your doctor friend has the same taste in colors as my husband, alas.

Love this blog, BTW, and your taste in music. I'd love to hear your opinion on current singers sometime...

That sounds like one of my students too!!! I teach knitting at work and this stellar student of mine has completely taken off! she wants to knit EVERYTHING! LOL I have two like that. But the one I'm referring to right now, she gets herself hyped up and then when she's working on something she gets all stressed about it.

IE: One lady on the train saw her struggling w/her stix and thread (as she calls them).

Lady: Isn't knitting supposed to be relaxing?Student: YES! Lady: But you don't look relaxed...Student: CUZ I'M NOT! THIS SHIT IS TANGLED! THE STITCHES ARE TOO TIGHT AND I KEEP DROPPING MY FREAKIN NEEDLE!

HA!

PS: I've been anxiously waiting to hear about the CHARTING SOFTWARE!!!!!

Freakin' hilarious, Franklin. Have fun. I currently have three pupils, ranging in age from 8 to 8. They get whatever godforsaken Red Heart yarn someone gave to me and they make a scarf. End of discussion. I suppose that's not so much how it would go with someone old enough to behave as an adult, eh?

Willibald went into cardiac arrest when confronted with the price of decent yarn and immediately lowered his primary target to making a scarf in two colors.

Bwah! Tell him I know how he feels. There are ways around the yarn cost, but I went into a little shock, since I thought this hobby was supposed to be economical. When he figures out that his first scarf will take him twenty hours of work, maybe he'll calm down. Maybe he'll even calm down enough to step out into beige.

I remind myself that I should use good yarn (I'm cheap and don't make much) by looking at how long whatever it is will take me to make. I don't spend X dollars on a scarf, I spend it on several nights of having something to do.

My first project was a sweater! I learned a lot about gauge doing that; the arms were too long, the back too tight and the front, not tight enough. It was sad when I finally ripped it out. All 11 balls of double stranded Cascade 220 -- orange.

Tee hee! My latest student, a 9 year old Drama Queen (of the female variety), said with aghast at the ONE ball of Lion Brand Jiffy she chose, "What do you mean, it'll take the ENTIRE ball to make a scarf?!"

Promptly after that, I shipped her off with her bamboo needles and said ball of yarn to her bio dad, leaving her mum and I to knit in peace. ;-)

(Sigh. You don't want to know. Take the "men, I swear" idea and add "French." Automatic ramp-up to "French men, I curse with the force of a thousand sailors and would have a sudden urge to throttle mightily if it weren't for that cutesy accent....")

My first project was a sweater...rice stitch, cabled sleeves, inset saddle shoulders...the works. In gray (grey?). I figured it out by myself having never knit a stitch, learned alot, it fit well...shame it was a wool/acrylic blent. Always something new to keep me going. I started knitting to make that sweater. Next was socks - beautiful ragg wool socks.

My first project was a sweater, just because I didn't know any better. I didn't have anyone teaching me. I did alright once I figured out what everything meant (which took a good long while, but I'm stubborn). It wasn't very good yarn though because I was a poor college student. It was wool though.

Too funny! Ostentatious beige! How do we know the grays aren't gaudy and garish? I, too, taught a friend to knit over the holiday. She kept making snarky comments about "maybe she'll have to learn to knit if I'm not going to come to tae kwon do anymore" (I'm taking a break after nearly 20 years...). She, like Willibald is overstressed from work...we seriously worry about her health. She's a lefty and has a visual-spatial LD (?yup. she's a 3rd degree black belt too!). So I started her on continental knitting after I cast on. I figured she can knit for a bit, learn how to bind off, then next project learn the cast on. And the project? She had little choice...I gave her some small balls from my stash (hmmmm) and told her to knit a square. It's a short project, who cares what it looks like, just good to get the hand motion down. If it is at all passable, I'll turn it into one of those mice, like the free pattern recently from Berocco. So said friend's cat can tear it to pieces.

Hey, I'm just impressed that he used two colors. Mine won't wear colors indistinguishable from black (were men 200 years ago just a completely different breed? When did the fear of color crop up?) and refuses to wear more than one color at a time. And I don't even want to talk about his description of most cables as "too busy."

too funny! I suggested to the husband that I teach him to knit (his boss has been trying to get him to knit too, as a stopping smoking activity) and he said that would be a bad idea. I realized he could be right, he might want to use my good yarn.

Delurking over here to say that I absolutely live for these blog entries of yours. Yours is the first blog in my 'bookmarks bar' and I check it everyday. I actually read it out loud to my husband while he does his homework (he's a teacher - they never rest). He really likes it when I 'act' out the dialogue... Yeah, don't ask - we don't have cable and the evenings can be pretty long.

Your student's problem was with colors. Hopefully they won't be as bad at the actual knitting. I tried to teach someone who somehow, within the span of three rows, went from 10 to 32 stitches. Amazing.

This guy is going to need to learn to do cables pretty quickly or or he won't make the distance on the scarf, either! I'm thinking high achiever with short attention span? Mind you, I hadn't knitted since I was 8 and my first effort o get back in the saddle was to knit and felt slippers!

When our other sister wanted to learn, we didn't teach her. Someone else did. She wanted to make socks right away. We warned her but she was adamant in her own quiet, graceful way and since we never say no to her, off she went. She made one goofy sock and then 10 perfect pairs with color and cables and more. And sweaters, lots of sweaters.

Usually the path is scarf, hat, sock sweater. Maybe after scarf he should go straight to socks or to a bottom up sweater in the round. Lots of work in the round before all the shaping.

I suspected there for a sec that you had met up with my male relatives! Speaking of which, are we sure he isn't colorblind? Because I once made a quilt to the EXACT color specifications given to me only to find out that the person was colorblind and to him it looked all grey. He'd been sort of guessing the colors by what other people called them.

I've just started teaching my boyfriend to knit and while he's starting off basic (with a short row beanie) he keeps asking for demos of other techniques, such as the mobius cast on and he's planning on knitting gloves very soon

my non-knitting husband constantly asks my what i'm laughing at while i'm reading knitting blogs. it has reached the point where i don't tell him anymore because he never finds it funny and i don't understand why he keeps asking. well he asked again last night and i read your post to him and he was laughing outloud.

LOL!Knitting in Plain English has a BABY SWEATER that it recommends as a first project: Quick, small, complicated with all the basics. I bet a baby sweater would be, um, all sorts of a challenge! Maybe OB stood for ostentatious beige... all those years of not realizing.

Copyright and Posting Notice

All original content of this blog, both words and images, is held in copyright by F. Habit. Use of any kind, in any medium, for any reason without express, prior written consent is prohibited.

Permission is not granted for the posting of any content from this site to Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter, or any other Web site.

Please do not provide links to any product, service, organization or cause when leaving comments unless directly related to the topic of the post. Unsolicited advertising will be deleted and repeat offenders will be blocked.

When in doubt, please ask. I'm not mean, I'm just committed to preserving the quality of experience for my readers.